WhatsApp Is A Really Handy App Once You Know These 10 Tricks!

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with over 30 Billion messages sent to and fro every day. Almost everyone you know is on WhatsApp, and with the rising SMS costs, it is extremely justified.

While you may be using the app frequently in a single day, we have curated a list of the top 10 secret tweaks and settings that can improve your overall experience with WhatsApp and make you use it like a pro.

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Hide Last Seen and Profile Photos

#1

The biggest nuisance of Whatsapp has long been the addition of the ‘Last Seen' feature, which lets the other users, know about the last time you opened the app. With the app's previous updates, you can hide your Last Seen notification as well as profile photos and status. Just head on to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen and change it to Nobody. You can change the same for both Profile Photo as well as Status.

Turn off Read Receipts

#2

Recently, Whatsapp incorporated another annoying feature of displaying blue ticks whenever you read the other person's messages. This lets them know instantly whether you are ignoring them or not. These blue ticks - also known as read receipts - can be turned off very easily. Go into Settings > Account > Privacy and toggle the Read Receipts option. As with Last Seen, you will not be able to view the read receipts for your messages if you toggle this option to off.

Change your registered number

#3

There are a lot of circumstances where we need to change our personal mobile numbers and it can be a pain to register the new number on Whatsapp, thus losing out on most chats and media sent via the old number. You can now simply go into your Whatsapp settings and change your number so that the app can smartly modify all chats in accordance with the new number. For this, go into Settings > Account > Change Number and just input your new number. Voila, Whatsapp will change all your settings to the new coordinates.

Backup chats and media on the cloud

#4

With people frequently refreshing their smartphone devices nowadays, changing the Whatsapp accounts on different phones results in wiping out all data, deleting all the chat history and removing all media sent via the app. For preventing this sad turn of events, just go into Settings > Chats and Calls > Chat backup. Now select the location where you want to back up your Whatsapp data (Google Drive for Android and iCloud for Apple) and click Backup. You can also select the frequency of the backup cycles.

View messages without going online

#5

While some of us may have switched on the Hide Last Seen mode, many of us forget but want to view a message urgently, without alerting the sender. For this, there is a very nifty hack. Just switch your smartphone to Airplane Mode and go into the app. Read the message and take the necessary action, quit the app and switch Airplane Mode off. The sender will be unable to see that you came online due to no refresh by the app during zero connectivity.

Use Whatsapp Web

#6

A recently launched feature by Whatsapp, Whatsapp Web is a brilliant and convenient tool for users who are majorly on their PCs or laptops, the whole day. You can now access, send, receive, view, remove, delete, and block your Whatsapp messages and media via your computer device. Just head into Settings and click on Whatsapp Web. Now open http://Web.Whatsapp.com on your PC and scan the code via your phone. In mere seconds, your Whatsapp account is on your computer!

Manage auto-download of media

#7

An average Whatsapp user is part of around 3 groups and 30-40 individual chat popups. All these chats generate a lot of media and some of which may eat into your data or Wi-Fi plans. To stop this nuisance, just head into Settings > Chats and calls > Media auto-download. From this setting, you have plethora of tweaks to choose from. You can set whether to auto-download images, videos and audio, on Wi-Fi, Mobile Data or roaming or on none. The options on iOS are limited though.

Refresh your Whatsapp background wallpaper

#8

A small tip but one that is quite helpful, is of changing your wallpaper in Whatsapp chat threads. With the default background, using the app becomes a bit monotonous and implementing things like choosing images from your phone's gallery lets you experiment with your favorite messaging app. Go into Settings > Chats and calls > Wallpaper and choose your preferable option out of numerous wallpaper backgrounds.

Start new chat from the home screen (iPhone exclusive)

#9

With the addition of 3D Touch technology on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Whatsapp has incorporated some nifty features and shortcuts to use the app more efficiently than ever. One of these tweaks is accessing shortcuts like Search and Start New Chat from the home screen itself, by force pressing on the Whatsapp app for the options.

Use lesser data on Whatsapp Calls

#10

A great new feature has been the introduction of Whatsapp Calls on the app. While great for making free calls to any location on the globe, these calls can eat into your data plan quite well. To prevent this from happening, go into Settings > Chats and Calls > Low Data Usage and tick the option. This will now make the app use less data when you are looking to reduce your usage.